Too Much CLUTTER!!

[lebolewis]

Uh........I thought this was a Forum about Airstreams, Towing and Camping! With a LIMITED number of "PORTAL" slots for new subjects, why are we having all these "Word Games" and various subjects that have NOTHING what-so-ever to do with Airstreams, Towing and Camping? There are at least 3 PORTAL slots, or more, taken right now, by these kinds of subjects! This site may be on a slippery slope to become a "GENERAL PURPOSE" site. Bill

[Westfalia]

Bill, there is a reason why it is call the 'Off Topic Forum'. Most of what your talking about is indeed off-topic from the main subjet of Airstreams, but more importantly you are seeing a tightly knit community of 'streamers sharing their culture and interacting with others when they can't be out camping. This site has one of the better online communities than I have seen in years.

[Wabbiteer]

But offering folks the choice to either see technical or social or both depending would be very welcome to this contributor.

Adding a forum / subforum by itself meant for mental exercise and socializing would be smart, "off-topic" is a bit to broad to always filter out on new activity screen, just brain-teasing not involving rivets or mouse nest fiberglass or this or that would be excellent place to visit; but also include an opt-out so folks taking a break from wrestling bits'n pieces in their rehab trailers can see vintage aluminum worrying other people too!

Some days there are so few technical posts the new post activity screen starts to remind one of spam emails <gasp>--- Someday soon when my Airstream is able to be towed I will want to hear about the next WBCCI political debate or rally etc. but for now sometimes could agree it is clutter as bad as storing the removed items from my trailer in my trailer!

[Shacksman]

At least we have had enough of the word games, already!

[JimGolden]

Dude, it's called "Skip over it if you don't want to read it."

I'm no fan of the word games either, but what the hay. It ain't hurting me. I just skip over 'em.

Check under the actual Forums heading. You can find all the techno you want. There's a real wealth of knowledge on here.

[Stefrobrts]

If you click on New Posts (near the top of the page on the blue bar) you can see the entire list of new posts since you last visited, which releves the problem of the portal page only showing the 25 newest entries.

[henw]

Mother always claimed that grumpy young folks grow up to be even grumpier old folks.

[rebfa]

Originally Posted by henw

Mother always claimed that grumpy young folks grow up to be even grumpier old folks.

hear yee, year yee!

[InsideOut]

minus 3 "word game" threads (in OFF TOPIC) = 29,817 other threads...should be enough reading for just about anybody....except maybe Evelyn Wood and I don't think she owned an Airstream.

Shari

[lebolewis]

My concern was the using of several of the 25 PORTAL slots that we have available for what I have called CLUTTER.

When I log in and read the Portal posts, I'm looking for FRESH, USEFUL, and INTERESTING information about AIRSTREAMS and directly related subjects.........not WORD GAMES or CAN YOU TOP THIS STORIES, ETC,.

Thanks to STEFROBRTS, I now know how to get all the NEW posts, and that will be helpful. However they are NOT ordered by SUBJECT and it will take a lot of time to scan through them. The PORTAL page puts the fresh posts together by SUBJECT.....a time saving and useful feature. Those 25 Portal slots are valuable positions and should rarely be used for CLUTTER. Bill

[dbradhstream]

This string fits the definition of clutter.

I would suggest a new system of categorizing posts so as to resolve this amicably:

1) Technical Posts;
2) Social Posts;
3) Posts of interest to Bill.

Would that help?

I'm kidding, I'm kidding, I'm kidding ....

bh

[dbradhstream]

oops, i guess that should have been a "Social" post

[Airhog1]

Originally Posted by dbradhstream

oops, i guess that should have been a "Social" post

ROTFL!

[SmokelessJoe]

If the Forum descends into social messages, gossip and cute but empty one liners flying across this public space, people who have something to say and something to learn about AIRSTREAMS will drift off to a place more useful to them.

This may not concern the don’t-rock-the-boaters who are clubbing Bill, Wabbiteer and Shacksman (and any others who might speak their mind, I suppose) but it should concern Andy R, the owner.

Sergei

[mwinter]

Words games and such never bothered me! I'm not really sure I understand how they'd get any anybody's way. There's always gonna be stuff that doesn't pertain to me, so I just subscribe to the threads I'm interested in. Seems pretty simple, right?

Myra

[Excella CM]

Seems harmless enough to me. If I was paying to read the posts, I might feel different. Sometines I sit in the Airstream and do crossword puzzles!

[InsideOut]

Originally Posted by Excella CM

Sometines I sit in the Airstream and do crossword puzzles!

Or Sudoku!

Shari

[Goin camping]

It's a big world with lots of options. Read what you want and leave everybody else to do the same.

[lebolewis]

Originally Posted by SmokelessJoe

If the Forum descends into social messages, gossip and cute but empty one liners flying across this public space, ........This may not concern the don’t-rock-the-boaters ........but it should concern Andy R, the owner. Sergei

RIGHT ON!!....... My point precisely, I wish I would have said that! Thank You. Bill

[Stefrobrts]

I understand where you're coming from, but I think the games (which are kept to a minimum) also serve to keep people coming back and having fun with their friends, even after their done with their restoration. I am done fixing up my trailer, and those tech posts don't interest me much anymore, I'm mostly here for the socializing, camping tips, etc.

Perhaps the problem is more one of not being able to customize the portal page to be most useful to each individual user?